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Sad news, especially for Fox3

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-englan ... raf-marham

I was there when the first operational Tornado arrived at Honington. Still regard it as a “new” aeroplane

Sisemen wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 06, 2019 12:41 am

I was there when the first operational Tornado arrived at Honington. Still regard it as a “new” aeroplane

It must be hard to assimilate that what was new is now deemed obsolete.

I trained with some of the first Tornado pilots. I lost one of my best mates in one in a training accident.

I worked for a short period (about 9 months I think) at Warton before moving on to civvie aviation, I helped build the first Tornado production aircraft for the RAF in 1979, after the EE Lightning I was pleased to find how accessible everything was. The process for soaking the wing pins in liquid nitrogen to shrink them prior to fitment was pretty specialised.
My son spent around 10 years as a Tech on Tornado squadrons including the second Gulf war.

It's always sad when an aircraft that has been part of history is retired. I must admit I hadn't realised that they'd been in service for 40 years, they must have looked incredibly futuristic in 1974 when they first flew.

The future BAe Chief Project Navigator on the Tornado, Roy Kenward, was on the same RN entry as me and was the 1000th aircrew member to use a Martin Baker seat (from a Sea Vixen). Sadly he lost his battle with cancer last June. An oddity maybe - the early test flights of the Tornado were carried out by ex-RN pilots - Dave Eagles and Paul Millet - even though the Tornado was destined for the RAF.

A former Boy Entrant the passed out with me in 1954, was a W.O. on the Multi National Trials Unit for the Tornado.

His experiences on that unit caused him to take his pension!

Ah! I recall all the joshing from the (real) fighter pilots at the time - MRCA

Mother Riley's Combat(/Committee) Aircraft
Must Refurbish Canberra Again

After all that, a good ship.

Just found this great video

This is my favourite Mach Loop video of the Tornado F3. There's an F-15 Beagle first for comparison.



Yup; in shot for 3 seconds and way lower, Where the f#ck did he come from? Where'd he go?? The point of low flying. And that's a fighter vs the USAF bomber.

Do we know if one is going to kept serviceable for airshows, such as they are these days thanks to Andy.

Ex-Ascot wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 17, 2019 10:09 am

Do we know if one is going to kept serviceable for airshows, such as they are these days thanks to Andy.

Adding one, or even two, to the BoB flight will cost a lot!